BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt said he was taken aback by Cornell's death.

"This is a hell of a shock, he'd been gigging frequently despite having a life that was quite extreme, and he was certainly in extremely good health, performing concerts and seemingly pretty much at the top of his game," he said.

Cornell was born on 20 July, 1964.

As a solo artist, he released four studio albums - most recently 2015's Higher Truth.

His biggest single in the UK was 2006's You Know My Name, which was the theme song to Casino Royale, which starred Daniel Craig.

The track made him the first male American artist to write and perform the theme song for a James Bond movie.

But he was perhaps most famous as the lead singer of Seattle band Soundgarden, which formed in 1984 and went on to release six studio albums.

Last year, the band confirmed they were returning to the studio to record new material and a tour was announced for this year.

On Wednesday evening, the Fox Theatre in Detroit tweeted pictures of the band while they were live on stage.